This was our first cruise. We needed a cruise that fit in with pre-allocated holidays at work and also to discover somewhere new. The Western Mediterranean ports have mostly been visited on other, non cruising holidays, so we wanted the Eastern Mediterranean and chose a cruise from Venice on Costa Luminosa. Some of the points highlighted in this review may seem trivial to seasoned cruisers but we had 101 questions before our cruise so hopefully this review may help others who are/were in the same situation as ourselves. To anyone like ourselves I would say "don't worry. A lot of things become self explanatory once on board" There are lots of variables when booking a cruise and I did some hefty research on sites like Cruise Critic. Some of the items we booked were merely a "fluke" like getting a drinks package included. We booked around 7 months in advance on the Costa website and chose a Premium Balcony cabin. This allowed us to choose the cabin we wanted and we opted for cabin 7260 which was mid-ship on the left hand side and had cabins above and below us to minimize the noise from bars, disco's, engines, theatre and the sundeck. As mentioned this also included the Brindiamo drinks package - more later. Also, by choosing this type of cabin we could specify preferences about meal times and we chose the first sitting (18:45) and specified a table for two in the upstairs dining room. My wife is on a Gluten Free diet so, a few days after booking, I telephoned Costa in Genoa and told them about the special request. We were advised that they could only guarantee gluten free food if we ate in the main dining room. They advised us not to eat in the buffet for this reason. We paid our deposit and I made a note to myself and paid the balance about 8 weeks in advance. Whilst the initial booking could be done online we could only pay the balance by telephone. Approximately 3 weeks before travel we received an email from Costa with boarding forms and luggage labels which we had to print out ourselves. We traveled from the UK to Venice by train and stayed the night before the cruise in a hotel in Mestre which is a few miles from Venice on the mainland. Our documentation from Costa said that boarding began at 14:00 so we headed from Mestre to Venice late morning and had a bite to eat. From Santa Lucia railway station in Venice it's a steady 25 minute walk to the cruise terminal. There's also a people mover which costs 1.50 Euro's and would reduce this transit time to about 12 minutes. Once at the port (at about 14:05) we handed our suitcases over and were given embarkation number 15. We proceeded to a waiting room and discovered that they were processing group number 12. We sat and waited for a short time before they called number 15. There were long queues but we seemed to move quickly. After checking in we had the obligatory pose for the camer-man and headed to the ship. It took exactly 1 hour from arriving at the terminal to getting to our cabin. The cabin was excellent. Plenty of room. A decent sized en-suite. Balcony with two chairs and a small table. Mini-Bar and a comfy bed. There was a selection of fruit and biscuits for us and a sign saying that they were gluten free (as we had told them). It was my wife's birthday on the day of boarding and there was a birthday card from the captain waiting for her in the cabin. On the bed were our Costa Cards, and some other information. At this point we discovered that people were allowed on-board from 11:45. So we had been killing time all morning waiting when we could have been on the ship 2-3 hours earlier. We had read many articles suggest things to do during the first few hours onboard. To put it mildly, we were overwhelmed. I think initially someone had suggested the pool. We didn't get this far until day 3 ! Each day a "Diary de Bordo" is delivered to your cabin. This shows navigation, weather and entertainment information and also information about shore excursions (where to meet and at what time etc). However, something that we almost missed was the "Welcome meeting" which was done at 15:30 in the Grand Bar Ellectra for English speaking guests. We found this very useful and would strongly suggest that any novice cruisers like ourselves seek this out on the first afternoon. We were advised that "English Speaking Guests" totaled 440 on this cruise. English speaking guests are those who don't communicate in the main languages used (French / German and Italian but not Russian). So included in this number were Swedish, Norwegian and Brazilian nationalities as well as British, Amercan and Canadians etc. I believe there was also a Russian host on board but ship announcements were not made in Russian. Whilst I am not privy to exact numbers I would estimate that the cruise consisted of 40% Italian, 25% German, 25% French and 10% split between other nationalities. It was rare to hear any other guest speak English on board. Most of the ships activities are on decks 2, 3 and 9. It's a beautiful ship. Very clean and well maintained. It was interesting to watch the officers do their inspections and pick up on the tiniest area that wasn't clean enough and tell staff to clean it. The Costa Card :- in our cabin was a Costa Card. This was our "passport" to the ship for the next week. It opened the cabin door and was used to obtain services on board. It was shown (and scanned) when leaving on shore excursions and likewise when returning to the ship. As our cabin included certain drinks we had to show it whenever ordering a drink. Each bar has a drinks menu. Next to each drink is a colour code representing the various drinks packages. I believe a grey dot represented a drink included in our package. Should we have ordered a drink that was not included in the package we would have been given a receipt and this amount debited to our room. Drinks on board generally ranged from 3 to 6 Euros. We subsequently discovered that our drinks package would have cost us 27 Euro's per day - that's between 5 and 9 drinks per day to make it worthwhile. We probably had about 5. Drinks that are included in your package convey no surcharge. However, anything not included has a 15% surcharge levied. Free water is available (by the glass) in the buffet area and pool area at the rear of the ship. Bottled water costs 1.70 Euro's (plus service charge) for 0.5 litres. One thing worth noting is that we were told that for environmental reasons all drinks are by the glass. When ordering a Pepsi it was poured from a 330ml can into a glass holding 250ml. What happened to the last bit I have no idea but we never saw them "recycle" a drink by pouring a bit from one can and the rest from another. The main dining seemed to be quieter (and smaller) on deck 3 rather than deck 2. Our waiter said the later sitting was the busiest. We found the food the be excellent. Yes, there is an Italian theme but also plenty of choices that are not just pasta. Each evening my wife was given a special "Gluten Free" menu which generally contain choices not available on the standard menu. Our waiter was slightly dour on the first day and we recalled some bad reviews with trepidation. However, we joked with him, talked to him and, by the end of the cruise felt that he was one of our best friends. A truly warm, genuine person. The cabin steward was also a very kind, warm person. Always smiling and kept the cabin in immaculate condition. When we got to the cabin on the first afternoon we could choose the time that would suit us best for it to be cleaned. We opted for the afternoon/evening as we would normally be having dinner. We had a very slight problem with a light not working and the cabin steward immediately stopped everything he was doing to fix it (it transpires that a previous guest had unplugged it) The bar staff were also great. Often remembering who arrived for drinks in what order and dealing with 3 people at once. On our subsequent feedback questionnaire to Costa we rated the ships officers quite badly as they hardly spoke and were miserable. However, without exception, the "normal" staff were incredibly attentive and cheerful. If you engage with them you would be treat like royalty. I received a free drink at the bar one day because, he said, " I had made him smile". Also, I had a daily ritual with one of the chefs at breakfast. Early in the cruise she was singing "You are my sunshine" as it was a beautiful sunny day. As the week progressed I asked her about the song of the day. As she normally was cooking omelets we had songs like "How do you like you eggs in the morning" and "Smile" though we changed the words a little from "Smile though your heart is aching" to "Smile though your eggs are breaking". Even though my wife was on a Gluten free diet we did use the buffet area on more than one occasion. My wife has an intolerance to wheat but if we are sensible we can work out what foods are likely to contain this substance. By 8am the buffet was busy. As early risers we were there at 7-7.30 and it was almsot deserted. The buffet restaurant opened about 11.30 for lunch. Usually at this time (until about midday) it wasn't that busy. However by 12:30 people were hunting for tables. There are four main serving areas. However there may be small variation with what's available at each one. For example, one may have carrots whilst another one may have the carrots swapped for Broccoli. Unless you are really picky and desperate there is certainly no need to visit more than one serving station. We only visited the buffet once in the evening and this was at 8pm and found it to be quiet. There is some repetition of food and some dishes (potato wedges appeared every night) In the main dining room you have an allocated table for evening meal but you are shown to a seat at Breakfast and Lunch which could be anywhere and generally only on deck 2 (the upstairs restaurant is only open on an evening). We had breakfast in the main dining room once and was bitterly disappointed. There is a small buffet area and you can also order one of a themed breakfast - so they had an American breakast, an English breakfast a Norwegian brekfast etc. We found, on the English breakfast that the bacon was like charcoal and the egg very "snotty". However for lunch and evening meal the food was spectacular. The portions are not huge but the menu is based on having 4 or 5 courses. We really enjoyed our meals and found them to well presented and very tasty. Dress code was varied. Each night there was a theme. Red & Black night / White night / Mask night. I would estimate that only 10% of guests actually took heed of this. People were having meals in shorts and t-shirts - even on gala night. The theatre has two showings. (I believe) at 19:30 if you have a late meal and 21:30 if you have an early sitting for dinner. Each show lasts 35-40 minutes. The first night was a magician who was "ok". Other nights we thoroughly enjoyed each show. One reviewer said "slapstick". We would vehemently disagree. Each announcement was made in Italian, French, German and English. Some people have said this was tedious. However we are an English couple sailing from Italy to the Greek islands. How lucky were we that they even took the time to speak English ? In our opinion - very ! Every member of staff was fluent in all the aforementioned languages. Also, we found it nice to be part of the minority. If, as an English couple, we wanted to be surrounded by English speaking people and visit a destination where everyone spoke English then we could have gone to Skegness. It was an eye-opener in our last port as a cruise ship with predominantly English speaking guests was also in port. Suddenly everywhere in town were British people and it spoilt what I would describe as the "exclusivity". We found the majority of other passengers to be miserable and very bad mannered. The staff would pass you and say "hello, Good morning". You would have been lucky to get a scowl from other guests. At the bar I would say " a cappuccino please". Many, many times I heard other nationalities just say "expresso" or "pepsi". No manners ! Needless to say that their bad manners persisted on shore excursions and meal times. We booked all of our shore excursions through Costa as we were unsure what would happen with self booked tours. This was, to us the worst part of our cruise. Generally, with fewer English speaking guests we shared our coach with other nationalities. French one day, Italian the next etc - however all announcements were multi-lingual Bari - Sassi de Matera We were in port for 6 hours but this tour took 5.5 hours. We were rushed with hardly any time for toilet stops. An audio/visual presentation was made in a cave. The tour guide cut in half way through say "got to go". We were given 30 minutes of free time at the end and told to meet "back here at 17:30". At 17:25 the tour guide took us back the coach, as she was in such a hurry, leaving some guests behind and a couple of these must have been in their 80's. Of course we were then delayed whilst she went back to find them... Keffalonia - Caves/Lake/Beach The visit to the beach was to "look at it" from 1000ft up a maintain. The caves and lake were good but very long queues for the lake (1 hour queue) Santorini - Oia and Fira Excellent tour guide. Excursion spoilt by very long wait to use the cable car. Queuing for 1 hour to use it. Worried about making the last tender back to the boat Mykonos- walking tour of Mykonos Waste of money. Tour guide took us on a 1 hour walk around Mykonos. "here's a windmill", "this is a shop", "that's a church". We discovered more in our own time that with him. Katakolon - Olympia We got a coach from Katakolon to Olympia with entrance included but no tour guide. We were disappointed by the short time we had there and also the lack of signage in Olympia telling you what things were. At the end of the cruise we were disappointed to leave. Whilst we didn't participate in many of the activities available time went by quickly - even our last day- at sea. We are now looking forward to our next cruise - but would like to try another company for comparison. Considering all of the negative reviews on Cruise Critic about Costa we were very impressed and they exceeded our expectations. I use an old adage "behavior breeds behavior". Treat the staff with courtesy and respect and they will treat you like royalty. The poor shore excursions and bad mannered, rude fellow travellers has stopped me rating this as 5* Even though we would like to try another cruise line we would not hesitate to book with Costa again. Read Less

When arriving on the ship there was a lot of confusion and our rooms were not ready. Once getting into our rooms it took another 2 hours for my bag to arrive. There was many things that were not included on this cruise which is not stated on the website. The entertainment was really bad. I have been on 3 cruises before this one and could not believe how boring the entertainment was. For good entertainment and value for money I would go on the Royal Caribbean again. I have been on the Royal Caribbean 3 times now and I can never fault it. There was not much to do for the children and the entertainment during the day was very boring. The food was also bad. When ordering meals you were unsure of what each one was and it would come out looking like it was chucked on the plate. When waiting to get a drink it took forever to find someone to order. Most of the time we just gave up and didn't order any drinks. I went on the cruise with my sister and her family and having them for company was good. It is a good cruise if you just want to relax as there isn't much happening when you are on the boat. Read Less

We chose this cruise because of the great port calls; Italy, athens, olympia, Kotor, and Split. The destinations did not disappoint. They were fantastic and we avoided much of the crowds by cruising in the winter. Unfortunately, we did not have a chance to explore Venice before our cruise departed as Easyjet canceled the flight. Needless to say, we had to scramble to find alternative transportation to Venice and it cost us an extra day of travel. The embarkation and disembarkation was extremely smooth at Venice. We had no issues getting on the ship four hours before the departure. Customs was smooth and friendly and this was the easiest embarkation we have experienced. The Luminosa allows you to embark or disembark at any of the port calls but I'm unsure how smooth the process was at the other locations. Like other reviewers, we found the Luminosa to be average. Compared to other cruises, the food was disappointing. Mainly pasta dishes and you pay extra for the dishes that are included on other cruises such as steak and lobster. Costa cruise lines charges extra for things like coffee, bottled water, ice cream, and even pizza. We found the layout of the cruise ship to be very similar to other cruise lines of this size. Spa on the 9th floor near the front of the ship, cafeteria style dining on the ninth floor, restaurant on the 2nd floor, casino, bars, etc. Our classic cabin with a balcony was nice; easily accommodating two adults and two children. The cabin was well insulated but we did hear some children running in the cabin above us. Thankfully, no issue with neighbors that smoke. The kids club seemed fine. My nine year old only went a few times but there didn't seem to be any language barriers. The teen club, however, was given over for infant space. As a result, the teens didn't really have a place to hang out and they would meet on various parts of the ship. It was a poor compromise and our teenage daughter, whom usually likes the teen club, chose not to participate on this cruise. It is apparent the crew is overworked. We were told they work 13 hour days for nine months without a day off. Our steward was responsible for around 20 cabins and it showed. Although hard working and friendly, you could tell the staff was stressed. Also, be prepared for lots of Italians and a lack of personal space and no regard for queues. Of course, this happens with other nationalities as well. Also, the announcements must have been in at least three languages which got tedious after a while. We did not attend any of the entertainment options but other passengers had good reviews for the nightly entertainment. All in all, we had a good cruise thanks to the port calls. Costa Luminosa has the potential to be a great cruise ship. Unfortunately, the quality of the food and overworked staff prevent the experience from rising to the next level. I would recommend the ship to those who are excited about visiting European ports and the timing works or the Luminosa price is significantly less than the competitors. Otherwise, it would be wise to consider other cruise ships. Read Less

I took my 18 year old granddaughter on the cruise for a graduation present. I usually go on the Princess Line (although I had been on two other Costa cruise many years ago) but this cruise fit our timing and most of the ports we wanted to visit. I cannot say enough about how bad the food and service (in the restaurants) was: * The buffet lines are very long (we stood in line for 30 minutes several times) and you have to stand in different lines for different items (same for beverages - they do not take your drink order). *In the sit down restaurant for dinner, the service was really bad. One night my granddaughter received her entrée when others received their salad. One man at our table received his entrée when others received their dessert. *In the sit down restaurant for breakfast they do offer a limited menu that you can order from and they also have a small buffet set up. It is impossible to get a waiter to take your breakfast order so we ended up going to the buffet in the restaurant (at least we were seated and didn't have to hunt for a seat like you have to do in the buffet restaurant). *Coffee and tea isn't served/offered after breakfast. You need to go to a bar area and pay after breakfast. * They charge for pizza (not available until 7 pm), ice cream and hamburgers. They do offer a hamburger at the grill by the pool but it isn't very good, and the grill is not always open (our at sea day the grill was closed). The grill is the only place to get French fries. * You have to pay for room service (other than coffee/tea, cereal, muffins). Plus you need to have a premium room in order to get room service. * The sit down restaurant is only open for lunch for 1 1/2 hours. If you go on an excursion it's not an option. * All cruise lines have specialty restaurants, but Costa also has a section on their dinner menu that have items that you need to pay for. * Other cruise lines have one side of the dinner menu that you can order these items at any time (on Princess, you can get shrimp cocktail at any dinner). The choices on Costa were a couple pasta dishes (and they were not good). Shrimp was never offered except for one night and the entrée was pasta with shrimp (there was ONE, tiny shrimp on the pasta). * The only time a steak was offered was on formal night - then we received a well done piece of meat wrapped in puff pastry. * If you're traveling with children or teens (or a picky eater) there is basically nothing for them to eat during the day (have to wait for the pizza and hamburger sections to open at 7 pm). We ate off the ship as often as we could. Read Less

We’re experienced cruisers, but this was our first time on Costa. We selected this cruise because it sailed from Venice (which we love) and because there were a couple of the ports that we hadn’t visited previously. The embarkation process went smoothly and we were delighted with our cabin. It was a mid-level balcony and had plenty of storage space and room to spread out. We loved every port and felt that we had adequate time in each one. The food was surprisingly good!! The breakfast buffet had lots of choices that were properly prepared. Dinners were terrific. Absolutely no complaints with the food. We were pleasantly surprised that smoking was very restricted and did not cause us any problems. I was a bit concerned about taking a Costa cruise since it’s considered “budget.” Fortunately, those fears proved to be unfounded and I would gladly book another Costa Cruise. One other thing...a couple of days after we completed this cruise we took a 12 day MSC Cruise out of Barcelona. What a contrast! The MSC cabin (same category) was tiny and the food...oh my goodness. It was just awful. Never again! Read Less

We really enjoyed our costa cruise out of Barcelona 2 years prior to this one but this was a big disappointment. It started with the company charging us $100.00 just to put our friends names on the tickets that we bought, the travel company put our names on both cabins but no information was even entered. Anyway, they charged for everything right down to ping pong balls to play a game. We bought the drink package, but it took forever to get a drink, bartenders played games with the guests, ignoring them while cleaning up the bar, I guess they were looking for more tips. The staff was friendly but there wasn't much motivation to work since they already had their tips paid. Food was good and our waiter was excellent in the evening for dinner but the breakfast and lunch was miserable! It took forever to be served and the choices were very limited. We have been on many cruises and we enjoy it a lot but never again on Costa. We aren't that picky or demanding but this was very disappointing from previous cruises. There wasn't much in the way of entertainment, no trivia, or sports events. The room was kept at 75 degrees, so at night it was too warm so we had to keep the door open. My husband keep asking for them to check on the air conditioning but they said that was the lowest it would go down to. We had a mini suite so it was a good size and we were able to board earlier then everyone else, thank goodness because the lines were SO long to board. They said 2 hours to get our luggage but it turned into 5. I had a tray of drinks spilt on me and nothing to change into for 4 hours, quite a sticky wet four hours to wait. It just seemed like a bus going around, dropping people off and picking them up at different stops, we had a good time but we won't go with Costa again. Read Less

This was our first cruise ever; we didn't knew what to expect, but it was all very good and it won't be the last cruise we make. More than enough space on the ship. You don't notice that there are more than 2.000 guests on board. Nice room (inside cabin 1248). Friendly personel, enough place on deck to find a nice/silent spot to sit in the sun. The food is good; for dinner you can choice for a luxury dinersetting on deck 2 or self-buffet on deck 9. When having dinner on deck 2 (restaurant Taurus), it takes sometimes a bit longer to finish dinner and therefore coming to late for the entertainment in the theater. Every evening we got the daily program for the next day in our cabin. We were with the two of us. You can see than Costa cruises are interesting for family's with children, because there were quit a lot of them. Not many older people. We didn't wnet with a shore excursions; we did it all bij ourselves. That's the nice thing with cruising, you are never very far away from the cities. Read Less

We choose for this cruise , because ; -The itineraries -The price of the cruise -All Inclusive (Diner and lots of beverages as wine, cognac,whiskey,beer, liquer,cocktails... -The total amount of days (just one week, not more) -The size of cabin and balcony -Entertainment We enjoyed the services of the crew, we liked the lay-out of the ship, - yes on this ship one can enjoy also more quiet areas. Deck four we loved quite well , if you like to walk quite a bit, this deck was well made for this This was not our first cruise and we enjoyed also other companies as; - Royal Crarribean (2x) - Norwegian Cruiseline - Celebrity (2x) - Holland America Line And yes ,they were all good ,so also Costa Luminosa was. And no; this ship was not too noisy One demand from us to Costa; Please make Venice or for exemple Triesta a port where you have more control on (communication with port authorities) Read Less

This is the first time I have been motivated to write a review, but we were so disappointed with Costa this time. We have cruised with them for several years, and have always been very happy. Everything started fine. Embarkation in Venice was more or less painless, the cabin was ready, and the food in the buffet dining room at lunch time absolutely fine. It was only when the cruise really got started we began to notice how things had gone down even from 6 months ago. In the main dining room for dinner, there were clearly staff shortages, only one waiting at table, previously had been two. Our waiter, as did many others, looked exhausted, but still managed to be delightful always with a smile and a cheerful attitude. The menu choices have been reduced for every course, and the 'everyday' menu, that is the one that doesn't change day to day, pretty restricted. No steak or meat dish available, mostly consisting of pasta. We expect pasta, there is always a pasta course, but for there to be no alternative for those who don't especially like pasta is not really satisfactory. The food was good, but having experienced what costa had to offer in previous years, didn't feel that it was as good. Worst of all, and we could hardly believe this, given that Costa is an italian cruise line, there was no pizza or ice cream available anywhere on the menu included in the cost of the cruise, not even in the buffet dining room. Reason - they sell it. Outrageous; we have complained very strongly on the feedback form they send out at the end of the cruise. Don't mind the paid for restaurants, don't use them, but accept that everyone has them these days. But pizza and ice cream??!! In the bars, again lack of staff very noticeable. We waited for about half an hour for a waiter, then gave up and went to the bar to collect our own drinks. Which is fine, except that all drinks carry a 15% service charge, so you kind of expect service. Some of the staff behind the bar were very offhand, appeared to be quite demoralised, and some didn't even give any eye contact, let alone engage in conversation. They weren't rude exactly, just did what they had to do, took the card and served the drink and that is all. Once we managed to get a waiter, the ones we had anything to do with were lovely, chatty and friendly, but appeared very rushed. Breakfast in the main dining room was pretty chaotic, they have a weird system of cold buffet, but with some hot items, as well as the served menu items. Getting those hot items from the buffet, to co-ordinate with a hot item from the menu so as to make up a breakfast dish was challenging to say the least. Main dining room should be a served menu, if you want buffet dining then you would go in the buffet restaurant. The reason we didn't go up there was that it was extremely difficult to get a seat at busy times, and again was pretty chaotic. At least in the main dining room you do get a seat, even though service could be slow, and on one occasion we had to get the Maitre'd involved as the table we were led to was not set, and no amount of asking got us any cutlery or crockery. The ship was almost full, there were clearly not nearly enough staff. Everything else was pretty much what we have expected from Costa. Entertainment is difficult we recognise that, with there being so many different languages to contend with. The cruise dancers and singers are good, and the acrobat dancers who put on an individual show were excellent. Otherwise the only alternative was 'the Voice of the Seas', talent show, and the crew show. The crew show was the most enjoyable of them all and the theatre was packed. Sadly packed with some very rude people who don't get that pushing past people and knocking their drinks over isn't acceptable, especially when the show has started. But this is the passengers, not Costa. They no longer serve drinks in the theatre, which is a good thing, but you can take them in. Apart from a cruise in an area where Costa don't go, this is the only line we have used in the past few years. Sadly, we will be trying someone else next time. Read Less

This trip was an anniversary gift to my elderly parents. The trip was quite a disappointment. It felt as operator was trying to save on everything (service, entertainment, staffing, etc). It was all not that bad if not they lost my parents suitcase with a lot of valuables in it, as of November 4th the baggage was not returned to them even tho we made countless attempts to contact the operator in regards to this. My parents are cruise enthusiasts and been on more then 20 different cruises and never they were so disappointed in their trip, not to mention it was not cheap at all. Complete lack of customer service makes it even worse. My mother had all her glasses (and believe me those were not cheap glasses) in that suitecase and she really struggles without them, operator showed NO INTEREST in returning missing baggage or providing other means of compensation, feels like they only concerned about collecting the money. Will not use again or recommend to a friend! Read Less